Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) allow software providers to communicate with a user efficiently and attractively, and to provide mechanisms by which a user can easily provide a software system with information. Many times, a GUI displays multiple items (such as multiple pieces of data) and allows a user to select one or more of the displayed items.
A GUI that allows a user to select multiple items may provide the user with controls to select each desired item individually, e.g., with checkbox controls, toggle controls, controls that allow the user to drill down through a hierarchy of items, etc. Some GUIs also provide a user with a “select all” option, which automatically causes all selectable items to be simultaneously selected. However, it can be time consuming for a user to sequentially select only desired items, especially if the user wants to select some available items, but not all of them.
GUIs that present items for selection in a list control generally allow the user to select multiple items using shift-click (to co-select all items between the previously selected item and the item that is the target of the shift-click, inclusive of the end items) and using ctrl-click (to add the subject of the ctrl-click to the set of currently selected items). However, it can be tedious to select non-contiguous items in a list control.
Furthermore, GUIs that present multiple selectable items via a grid control generally allow a user to select all items in a particular row, or column, and to swipe across cells in the grid to select multiple grid cells in a block. Such a swipe selects all cells in the grid that are in columns that intervene between the start column and end column of the swipe (inclusive of the start and end columns) and that are in rows that intervene between the start row and end row of the swipe (inclusive of the start and end rows). As with a list, a user may select and de-select particular items using ctrl-click. It can be tedious to select non-contiguous desired items, or to select desired items that are not all in a single row, column, or block of cells in a grid control.
Thus, it would be beneficial to provide a method to improve selection of multiple displayed items in a GUI and provide functionality connected with multiple selected items.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.